Moment of Truth
by Mind's Odyssey
Summary: Even his friends were telling him to just forget about her, for she didn't even return him his act of kindness. But he couldn't. It pained him to see her suffering alone like this. * When she saw his worried, shocked face when she ran away from him. That was the last time she saw him. Last... Zexion x Naminé one shot. Some fluff, maybe? And suspense. Rated T just in case.


**Kingdom Hearts One Shots Series  
****01 - Moment of Truth**

Pairing: Zexion x Naminé

It was a sunny afternoon in Twilight Town, where the sun shone warmly at the inhabitants of this lonely planet Earth. Naminé was sitting at a field in Twilight High. A sketchbook was opened on her lap, with some drawing stationery scattered around her.

It was recess, with all the teens roaming around the school freely, chatting away with their friends in cliques. The boys talked about their favorite sports and games, while the girls chatted excitedly about their upcoming plans for parties and whatever. Among the students scurrying around, no one was seen around Naminé. Her frail frame somehow stood out of the crowd.

"Alone again, I guess?" sighed Naminé internally. But she merely shrugged it off and resumed her drawing. She thought, "Well, I'm still a new student after all, nobody seemed to be interested in a new student who isn't as pretty as the girls here." She was only transferred to this school one month ago. Her introverted and shy personality didn't gain her much friends. But she still thought it was lucky to have Kairi, Roxas and Sora as her only friends.

Kairi was seated beside her during her first day at school, while Roxas and Sora, a pair of twins, noticed her after Kairi introduced Naminé to them. Sora was quite excited to meet her, with his overflowing enthusiasm and all that. Roxas, as contrary to his twin brother, was as quiet as Naminé. He was a more reserved person, but was surprisingly easy to talk to. Kairi was a cheerful, bright girl. Naminé always envied the confidence she exuded, in classes or not. Not only she was good in academics, but she was also quite active in clubs and societies. At times, Naminé wondered why these amazing people would want to be her friends. They made a bizarre group.

Unfortunately, those three were not in the same classes as Naminé was, except Math. So she was all alone most of the time. Sometimes when they got busy, Naminé would have to spend her recess time alone. And today was one of those days. Even though she was engrossed in her work, her ever restless mind wandered to somewhere else...

_That boy..._ That was what came into her mind next after her friends. That slate-colored hair, those aqua blue eyes... Naminé eventually stopped her hand from tracing sketches on the sketchbook. She began to wonder. "He always notices me... Why? Why would he notice someone like me?" That all started at her third day in Twilight High...

_-Flashback-_

_"Would you mind if I sit here?" said a quiet, yet smooth voice. Naminé immediately looked up at the stranger before her. She was in the ever silent library, sitting at a vacant and isolated table. Therefore, she never expected people talking to her. The short boy before her had a nearly emotionless facade. His long slate-colored bangs obscured his right eye from sight. The only blue orb she could see had a slightly nervous glint in it. She couldn't help but stare into it for a while, mesmerized, but then she broke away from her trance, looking to another direction nonchalantly. She nodded and added, "It's OK, I don't mind." "Thank you." That's all he said, and then he proceeded to pull out a chair quietly and sat beside her. Their first encounter was filled with awkward silence. After a good ten minutes, the boy left._

_During his time sitting there, Naminé couldn't concentrate at her book. Instead, she took glimpses at him secretly from time to time. "What is the point of sitting here? There were a lot of unoccupied tables in this library," she thought, the gears in her mind reeling. When she couldn't make out a vague meaning behind his move, she simply ignored her thoughts, and irritably looked for the last sentence she read before she was drowned in her tangled-up thoughts._

_-Flashback ends-_

Some time after their first encounter, the boy came again, and again. Eventually it seemed to become his daily routine to look for her and stay with her, be it in the library, or in some classes, or at the field from a distance. She felt a little unnerved by his presence, she even thought of him as a stalker. But the boy sure was persistent; he would show up whenever she was all alone. At some point, they did have some conversations but mostly ended up in awkward silence, mostly because of her coldness.

But she couldn't be blamed, to be honest. When she was in her old school, Vanitas cheated her big time with another girl. And when Naminé finally approached him in the school hall, Vanitas merely disregarded her and broke up with her in front of the students. She even got slapped by that girl... And her friends in that school left her one by one. That was why she was transferred to this school, to get away from anyone who knew her, and to start a new life. Even so, her wounds were left unamended. No, correction; she wanted to heal it but whenever another person approached her to try to befriend her, the wounds would just rupture and the painful memories would resurface, tormenting her. And to her natural self-defense, she would frantically shut off any channel that connected her to them, to prevent herself from getting hurt again. From that time onwards, she would sometimes perceive kindness was a mock, a fake. But she never voiced that to anyone else, not even her three friends.

To her dismay, that boy, who she learned his name as Zexion after numerous encounters, would come to her. Most of the time he was quietly reading his book. And when he talked to her, she would mostly return one-worded responses or an indifferent shrug. Despite her desperate attempts to push him away, he still never changed his attitude towards her. Normally people would just forget about her and leave her alone. Apart from Sora, Kairi and Roxas, he was the only one who never gave up on her somehow. And that intrigued Naminé as to why he would want be with a nobody like her.

"RRRIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNGGG!" the school bell rang suddenly, causing the blonde girl to snap out from her thoughts. She then realized she was back to reality, with her sketchbook on her lap, and her stationery beside her. She let out a soft sigh and proceeded to pick up everything. She had Chemistry lesson later, and an angry Mr. Vexen was the last thing she wanted to experience. After she confirmed everything was kept in her drawing bag, she turned to leave, her footsteps scrunching on the oily green grass. Just then -

"Naminé!" A voice called out.

She stopped dead in her tracks and slowly spun around. The one who came into her view was Zexion. He was running to her, and when he stopped in front of her, he put both his palms on his knees, panting. "I've... been... looking for... you..." he said in between pants. "... What is it you want?" asked Naminé, looking away, with a slightly bad feeling in her chest.

He finally calmed down his breathing, and straightened up. Was it her imagination? Or was that a faint shade of pink on his face under the golden sunshine? Well, it could be due to his running just now. He didn't seem to be the athletic type. Zexion cleared his throat and said, "Actually, there's something I wanted to tell you... a long time ago." Naminé, for some unknown reasons, started to tense up subconsciously, though not obvious. _That feeling!_ That feeling... it's coming back... No...

Despite her internal struggles, she managed to steel herself up, she put on an indifferent facade and replied, "Um, what is it?" By now, the tinge of pink on Zexion's cheeks seemed to grow darker. He blinked forcefully, and then he blurted, "I... always had this strange feeling when I am around you..." ... That feeling... That feeling of pain...! "And... I think I... I... I like you, a lot."

Naminé was shocked, although her instincts had foretold her via internal struggles.

She couldn't bring herself to answer. She just stood there, staring at him as if he had just grew a horn on his head or something. And then she started to tremble, with some unseen tears starting to gather in her eyes. She slowly shook her head, backing up. When she saw the astonishment written all over his face, she finally mumbled, "No... I can't..." "What?" Zexion was confused more than hurt, and he started to step forward, trying to reach her. And she finally snapped, "NO!" And with that, she turned to run with all her might. The tears then finally flowed down her pale face.

The last thing she caught in her eyes was his confused face, which she felt painful to look at.

Little did she know, Sora, Kairi and Roxas witnessed it. They looked at one another, worry prominent in their eyes. "Why hadn't she open up to all of us yet?" mumbled Roxas, his head lowered.

* * *

Evening came, and the sun was setting down the many hills in Twilight Town. The sky was dyed orange, red, yellow and pink, as if paints were smeared on it. Zexion was walking alone down a lane. From his footsteps, one could tell he was walking aimlessly. In his heart, he felt sad and worried all wrapped up together. Well, the girl he had a crush on literally rejected him, yes, but what worried him the most was her response. She didn't seem angry, but fear. "Why fear out of everything?" he thought, starting to frown, a habit he picked up whenever he was thinking hard. He would never harm her, never in his life. So why did she push him away? Although she always gave him the cold shoulder most of the time when he tried to communicate with her, he still couldn't leave her behind. And even his friends, Axel and Demyx, were telling him to just forget about her, for she didn't even return him his act of kindness.

But he couldn't. It pained him to see her suffering alone like this.

He suddenly felt something being kicked. He looked down and saw Naminé's sketchbook on the ground. He bent down and picked it up. "She must've been in a hurry," Zexion thought. "I could give back to-" And then he was stumped. "But I don't know where she lives..." He then let out a sigh. Finally, Zexion said to himself, "Well, looks like you'll have to stay with me for the time being then." He thought of returning it to her tomorrow, though it would be kinda hard, and not to mention awkward.

Just then, a strong gust of wind whizzed past and blew the sketchbook open forcefully. Before Zexion could react, a page from the sketchbook was blown away. The wind decided to give it a tour around the town. But Zexion wouldn't let it. He started to chase after the flying paper, street after street, lane after lane. And finally... "Got you!" He extended his arm and caught the paper before it flew anywhere further. He held the paper before him and his eyes widened at the picture on the paper. Before he could utter a word, a car's honk blared loudly in his left ear. He whipped his head to his left and he only saw an incoming car, speeding towards him.

CRASH!

* * *

By now, it's already 8 o'clock at night. Naminé was in her room, sitting on her chair. She blew out the bangs in her eyes and sighed, "Where did I drop my sketchbook?" After all the searching and rummaging, her room was in a mess. And then she muttered, "Maybe I left it in school, or the lab... Geez. What am I doing..." She decided to take a break from searching and think, and that's when her mind began to depict Zexion's face faintly. She averted her gaze to the floor at the thought of him. He was really strange; why did he bother to be with her anyway? She wasn't anything good at all. At this point, she didn't understand anyone anymore.

"He could be like that hypocrite for all I know," thought Naminé, clenching her fists which were resting on her knees. Had she got the chance, she just wanted to throw Vanitas into the ocean to feed the sharks. Gritting her teeth, she stood up abruptly, still glaring at the floor. She made a conclusion to stop her from thinking so much: Everyone is the same. They act kind towards you, and only using you in the end. _Forget about it, Naminé. Think no more._

Suddenly, her cell phone rang, destroying the silence in her room. She snapped back to reality and picked up the phone. To her surprise, Kairi was calling her, and there were even some missed calls from earlier, all of them were from Kairi. Maybe she was too absorbed in her thoughts to notice her phone ringing. She wanted to turn it off and toss it somewhere else, nevertheless, she still answered the call.

"Hello?" said Naminé.  
"Naminé? Oh thank goodness you finally answered the phone!" Kairi exclaimed.  
"What is it? You sound pretty agitated..."  
"Oh my god... I don't know how to say... Naminé, something happened..." For a second, Naminé swore she could hear the fear in Kairi's voice.  
"C-calm down, Kairi, what's wrong?" she said, but she was also plagued with anxiety.  
"I-it's Zexion... H-he was... was hit... car... I... saw him... full of b-blood... all over him... *Sobs* Oh my god..." sobbed Kairi, stuttering and trembling.  
"... What?!" This time, Naminé couldn't process what she had just heard.  
"... Give me the phone. Naminé? Naminé, can you hear me?" Another voice came in, it was Roxas.  
"... Roxas?"  
"Listen, Naminé, we're on our way to Twilight Town General Hospital. We'll meet there, OK?" He sounded surprisingly calm.

But she didn't respond verbally, instead, the phone fell from her limp hand and hit the floor with a thud.

Naminé had her eyes widened, all color drained from her pale face, making it as white as a sheet of paper. She trembled involuntarily, while mumbling to herself. "Why? Why so sudden...?" Her heart begged her to rush out immediately, but her mind was demanding her to wake up. Didn't she always think of him as annoying? That he would always appear whether she liked it or not?

Then again, from what she had overheard her classmates saying, he seldom smiled, so why did he smile a lot around her? _"You know, Zexion rarely smiled at anyone, but he seemed to do so a lot with you around him," commented Roxas._ And that he would talk to her, tried to joke around her, cheered her up? Or when she was having a bad day, he would just sit there, accompanying her silently? As if he cared about her...

Suddenly her eyes widened even more, realization hit her hard in the head, and everything rewound in flashback rapidly. When she first met him, when he firstly talked to her, when they firstly shared a short conversation, when she saw his genuine, small smile -

When she saw his worried, shocked face when she ran away from him. That was the last time she saw him. _Last_...

Her heart got the best of her and she couldn't take it anymore. She grabbed her purse and dashed out of her room. She stormed down the stairs and shouted at her startled parents that she would return soon. Naminé ran along a lane and successfully stopped a taxi. She hopped on it, saying, "Twilight Town General Hospital, please." And the cab sped away to her destination soon after that.

After a rather painful 30 minutes, Naminé finally arrived at the white building. Although it's already night, the lights were bright. A little too bright to her liking. She didn't care anyway, she rushed through the automatic main door straight after she got off the cab and paid the taxi fare. She looked around frantically, but besides other patients, nurses and doctors, she didn't see him anywhere. And she recalled that Kairi said he had a lot of blood on him, so he should be in the operation room now or something. She ran over to the inquiry counter and asked the woman there. "Excuse me... I-is there a patient n-named... Zexion?" The woman, Tifa (Naminé saw it from her name tag), quickly scanned through the computer data, and finally replied, "Yes, if you are asking about the car accident earlier, he is at the 6th Floor now." Naminé threw a "thank you" at her and left hastily for the elevator.

She didn't even wait until the elevator door to open completely and she stumbled out. Right at the end of the corridor was the operation room. From the red sign above the entrance, she could tell the operation wasn't done yet. Still, Sora, Kairi and Roxas were nowhere to be seen. Nonetheless, she ran down the corridor, straight to the operation room. When she was about twenty steps away, the doors flung open abruptly, and the surgeons were pushing out a bed on wheels. On top of it was someone, with his or her body covered with a white blanket. Even the face was obstructed by the sheet of cloth. She stopped in her tracks, and stared at the body. Even though the face was covered, the hair wasn't. And that was what caused her legs to go wobbly like jelly - the hair color was slate-colored, Zexion's hair color, to be exact.

She managed to get up and stumbled over to a nearby surgeon. She clutched onto his green shirt and asked feebly, "Is he... dead?" "...Yes." _Gulp._ "Who... who is this... person?" The surgeon merely pointed at the limp hand on the bed. Naminé saw a strip of paper tied around the wrist, which the name on it was -

_Zexion._

All hell broke loose at once, she pushed the surgeon away and rushed over to the corpse, yelling at the other surgeons to stop. She clutched onto the cold corpse and stared at it. She didn't dare to pull off the white fabric, it would kill her to see his dead face. She burst into tears and cried into the chest. Her hands grabbed the white blanket and curled into tightly clenched fists. "Z-zexion... No...! I'm so s-sorry... Sorry... I'm such a d-dumb... Why didn't I r-realize until n-now?! Zexion... Zexion!" She kept bawling like a baby, and refused to back away even when the surgeons tried to pry her off the corpse. She sobbed, "I know i-it's t-too late... But I d-don't care! Zexion... I love y-you too... I'm t-too blind to... to s-see that..." Now, the surgeons were too shocked to say anything.

Then, the elevator door opened to reveal Sora. He was surprised to see such a commotion before him, but he shook his head vigorously and ran over to them. He found Naminé and then knelt down beside her. He tried to coax her, "Naminé, please, stop. It's too late." Naminé shook her head, while still sobbing. She cried, "No! I'm not going anywhere! Zexion..." "Calm down... please, Naminé... It's no use..." Sora said sadly, putting his hands on her shoulders to calm the girl down. She swatted his hands away violently and Sora was taken aback. He proceeded to pull her up, with Naminé struggling with all her might against his grip. She managed to hit Sora in the stomach with her elbow and broke free. She ran to a random direction, for she was too disorientated to care. And suddenly -

"BAM!" She ran into someone else and both of them fell to the floor. "Ouch..." whimpered Naminé, holding her grazed elbow. "Ow... Naminé?" Naminé then looked at the person she ran into - Kairi. "Naminé, are you OK?" asked Kairi, her eyes were slightly red and puffy, she'd also been crying. Naminé didn't care, she threw herself into Kairi's arms and sobbed. "Why?! Why did he h-have to die?! Why did I have to be s-such an idiot... Why did I reject him... I love him..." She cried and repeated those words over and over again to Kairi. Kairi had a confused look on her face, and she tried to calm the blonde down, "Naminé, what are you saying? That's not true..." "No! I saw him! H-he's there..." Naminé pulled Kairi up and dragged her over to the corpse. She pointed at the paper strip on the wrist and sobbed, "See? T-this is his n-name..." Kairi bent down to have a better view, her eyes went wide in shock and she said, "But, Naminé... The name here is 'Zevior'!"

Wait, _what_?

Naminé couldn't speak at all, she looked at the name too, it was "Zevior" alright! Then, what happened to...?

"Naminé?"

The girls spun around slowly and behold, Zexion was behind her, with Roxas beside him. He was injured lightly, with some gauze and bandages on him. Roxas was staring at them as if they were nuts, he asked, "What were you guys doing with a corpse?" "You all saw and heard all of that?" Kairi asked. "Y-yes?" answered both the boys. Naminé looked down at the floor, a blush surfacing on her pale face. Suddenly she burst into tears again. "Hey, we should get to your room, Zexion," said Sora, getting up from the floor.

* * *

When they finally made it to Zexion's room in the hospital, Zexion explained what actually happened:

_-Flashback-_

_He held the paper before him and his eyes widened at the picture on the paper. Before he could utter a word, a car's honk blared loudly in his left ear. He whipped his head to his left and he only saw an incoming car, speeding towards him._

_CRASH!_

_Zexion managed to dodge aside to avoid the car ramming into him with much momentum. He fell to the side. He grazed his elbows and knees and even bruised his hands. Still gripping onto the sketchbook and the paper, he pushed himself up. He was still on the ground and he stared at what was before him, horrified. The car crashed into a streetlight and all the way to the road divider. The car was smashed shapeless, and white smoke emitted from the engine part. The driver couldn't be seen, but Zexion could see an arm draped out from the broken window, with blood dripping off it._

_After he was stunned for a few minutes, he finally snapped back to reality and pulled out his cell phone. He called an ambulance and the fire brigade in case of an explosion. A few minutes later, the ambulance arrived. The paramedics and Zexion successfully got the driver out of the huge mess of metals. Zexion tried to hold the driver, but he limped and fell down walking with the driver, thus getting some of the driver's blood on him. After the paramedics had carried him into the ambulance, they helped Zexion into the ambulance too. And that's when Kairi saw him._

_-Flashback ends-_

"Oh... So that's how..." said Sora thoughtfully, scratching his head. "Dude, you scared me to death, man," Roxas said. Kairi sighed, "Thank god you are okay." Naminé didn't say anything, she stared at the floor while taking it all in. Finally she said, "Um, can you guys... leave for a while?" Roxas, Sora and Kairi stared at her for a few seconds, and then they agreed. Only Naminé and Zexion were left in the white hospital room. The coldness of the air-conditioner and the smell of disinfectant remained with them. Silence settled in, and Zexion was the first to break the wall of ice between them, "It's okay now, I'm alright."

Naminé looked up, her eyes puffy and red. She trembled slightly. And suddenly, out of the blue, she rushed over and gave him a bone-crushing hug. She buried her face into Zexion's chest and started to bawl again. Her tears soaked a part of his newly changed shirt. Zexion staggered backwards upon receiving the impact, startled at her outburst, and tensed up, but later he relaxed and hugged her back. He whispered to her to calm her down. "It's okay, it's okay... I'm here..."

Naminé kept sobbing, "I'm s-sorry, I'm b-being so b-blunt, cold a-and harsh towards y-you... I'm so sorry..." After a good five minutes or so, her sobs finally subsided. Then subconsciously, she began to tell him her past, that dreadful past she didn't want to expose to anyone. Well, not anymore. After hearing the past that traumatized her, Zexion caressed her back soothingly and reassured, "Don't worry, I swear, I'm not him. I won't be like him at all." His voice came out muffled in her hair.

And then Naminé lifted her gaze slowly, looking at him in the eyes. Her hands subconsciously pushed the bangs that obscured his right eye away gently. Now she could see two pools of aqua blue, twinkling at her. Those were no longer two pools of lies, as in Vanitas' case. His were sincere... And it mesmerized her. She was lost in them, and that was when she finally realized the truth, the moment of truth: She loved him all along, but she was too afraid to expose herself to get hurt again. Thus she ignored it, pushed him away. Ever since that happened to her, her old friends left her... She was being so selfish...

Zexion's slowly put his hands on both sides of Naminé's cheeks, she blushed at the contact. He shortened their distance slowly, and their noses touched. Their hot breaths caressed their faces. Zexion also blushed. And then he slipped his eyes closed, and he closed in, sealing her lips with his. Naminé blushed more fiercely when the warm sensation flowed to her head, overloading. Soon, she closed her eyes and returned the gentle kiss. Her hands wrapped tightly around his torso. It was sweet , sensual and filled with love. She liked every second of it.

After what she thought was forever, they broke away for air. Humans need oxygen anyway. They still remained in each others arms, their breathing slightly irregular. Naminé leaned in and rested her forehead on his chest, feeling his heart beating against her forehead. She said quietly, "I love you, Zexion..." Zexion put one hand on her back and one on her back of the head. He rested his chin on her head, and whispered, "I love you too..." Just then -

"BAM!" "AHH!" "OUCH!"

The door flew open suddenly, and three teens fell into the room in a heap, startling the two. They stared at their three friends, namely Sora, Kairi and Roxas on the floor, surprised. Sora wolf-whistled and cheered, "Finally! That's cute though, way to go!" Roxas grumbled, for he was at the bottom, "Get off me, you two!" Kairi was sitting on both of the boys, smiling awkwardly. "Sorry for peeking on you two..."

Outside of the room, the trio was seen scrambling out of the room, trying to avoid the plastic cups being thrown at them. "OW! We're sorry about that!"

Naminé put both her hands on her hips and said, "That should keep them away." "For the time being, yes," said Zexion, chuckling. Naminé spun around to face him, and then Zexion thought of something. He said, "Oh, right, I want to return you your sketchbook." He walked to the small desk beside the bed and took the brown sketchbook. When he handed it to her, a paper was sticking out of the book. "That's the paper you're chasing after?" asked Naminé. Zexion nodded, and flipping open the book. It was a sketch of Zexion of him reading a book. "I never knew you sketched me before, no wonder I caught you staring at me," said Zexion, smiling. Naminé blushed slightly, and stuttered, "You know t-that's not the reason." Zexion sat on the bed and commented, "Yeah, I know..."

Naminé put the book on the desk and said, "That's not important anymore... Now that we're together..." Zexion then extended an arm to her and she took it. He pulled her gently onto the bed beside him. They lied down on the white bed. She rested her head on his chest, nuzzling into the warmth of the boy. He hugged her slightly, sighing in relaxation. Naminé listened to his constant heart beat, and that formed a lullaby rhythm, lulling her to sleep. Soon, she was in lost in the land of sleepiness.

When Zexion discovered the blonde girl's breathing was even and soft, he smiled at the sight of a sleeping Naminé. He pulled the covers over them, and he planted a soft kiss on her forehead. "Good night," he whispered, and then he lied back down and draped an arm over her sleeping form. He then sighed tiredly, closed his eyes and fell asleep in each other's arm.

**The End**

* * *

**A/N: And so here's my first Kingdom Hearts one shot! Hope you guys will enjoy it. I don't ship any pairing in particular, so I'll go randomly. Disclaimer: I own nothing of Kingdom Hearts, but I own the plot of this one shot.**


End file.
